H.E Ambassador Admasu Misgana, State Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Transcription

1 Opening Remarks By H.E Ambassador Admasu Misgana, State Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia On The Youth Employment Service Strategy Development and Capacity Building Workshop Organized by ILO Project on Addressing Root Causes of Migration in Ethiopia Elilly Hotel Addis Ababa 5-6March, 2018

2 Representative of ILO Country Office for Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan Representative of EU Office in Ethiopia Representative of Italian Embassy Invited Participants of the workshop from relevant Federal and Regional Government Institutions Ladies and Gentlemen It is indeed a great pleasure and honour for me to be here amongst you and to make an opening remark on this important and timely engagement of ours Youth Employment Service Strategy Development and Capacity Building Workshop that takes place here for the next two days This workshop is very important and timely during which we are aggressively engaged in the implementation of our newly issued National Employment Policy and Strategy that serves as policy instrument, the objectives of which are to promote employment opportunities that can absorb the country s labour force, maintain stable macroeconomic policies that facilitate the creation of decent employment opportunities and to improve labour productivity and competitiveness through well integrated and effectively coordinated national efforts. The issue of the workshop, youth employment is also one among the ultimate goal of the same policy. Dear Guests, Participants of the workshop, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a well-known fact that work is central to people s wellbeing. In addition to providing income, work can pave the way for broader social and economic advancement, strengthens individuals, their families and communities. Currently it has come to be equally important that it is only when work satisfies the essence of decency that it is a source for personal dignity, family stability, peace in the community, democracies that deliver for people, and economics that deliver for people, and 2

3 economic growth that expands opportunities for productive jobs and enterprise development and meet the ultimate need of the current modern people of both developed and developing world of our era. Like in many of the developing nations, youth employment presents a particular challenge to Ethiopia. The population growth coupled with limited economic opportunity and livelihood options for Ethiopian youth has resulted in significant increase in the rate and magnitude of out-migration to different countries in the last few years. Due to the absence of well concerted national efforts up to recently to effectively address the issue of unemployment of the entire population in general and that of the youth in particular, the endeavor so far made in this regard at all levels could not result in substantial achievements. The exiting government of Ethiopia attaches a great importance towards what the creation of productive employment to its workforce contributes in its ongoing all rounded and inclusive development that centers the human faces, the ultimate objective of which is ensuring that its people will go out of poverty, the problem that has been with us since the time immemorial. This commitment has been well witnessed by the consecutive measures taken so far by the government which include among others crafting of the right policies, legal instruments and programmes; putting in place of proper implementation arrangements that requires the establishment of strong and effective cooperation and coordination system among all relevant stakeholders including designation of pertinent institutions entrusted with all services that deal with employment related issues. As you might recall, the public employment service (PES) as one instrument to deal with the issue of employment, historically emerged in industrialized countries in the nineteenth century as a result of concerns about the social and economic impact of unemployment. The same initiative has culminated in to the efforts made subsequently to govern the service by international laws including the ILO s 3

4 Conventions The early public employment services were mainly concerned with jobmatching i.e., the process of arranging for jobseekers to obtain jobs and employers to fill vacancies. But gradually it has been developed and reached the stage to assume other modern and proactive employment service related functions that has been provided by international standards The current public Employment Services operate in a rapidly changing labour market. Powerful demographic forces are working to create an ageing labour force in developed countries while continued population growth in most developing countries such as of ours is creating problems of youth unemployment. The forces of global competition and information technology are creating formidable challenges against the proper functions of most of PES of our time. The PESes in Ethiopia also shares the same. Dear Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen, Past experience of many countries of the world plus the knowledge attained up to now have clearly demonstrated that all interventions to be made to fully address employment, ought to put youth employment as a centre piece. Designed programmes and strategies to properly curtail youth unemployment require to apply many measures including strengthening and reinvigorating our existing Public Employment Services to adopt new and effective functions such as the development of youth employment centers. It is in view of this that this workshop is organized by the ongoing ILO/ EUTF Addressing the Root Causes of Migration Project the main objective of which is to deliver on how and why aspect of Youth Employment Centers and make it realized with the cooperation and ownership of all relevant organizations from both the federal and regional states represented here. I hope this workshop would be of a good opportunity to further explore the dynamics of labour market and come up with 4

5 concrete and workable strategies and plan of actions towards designing modern and effective public employment services with a focus on youth employment in our context by using the golden chance of having specialists with us to share their knowledge and skills in the field. I humbly request all participants of this workshop to actively participate and raise ideas and suggestions that will help us to come up with tangible and workable outcomes regarding how to go about strengthening our public employment services in view of establishing youth employment centres. Finally, I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to ILO and its close partners of the project, on behalf of the government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for the initiation they have taken to organize this timely and important workshop. Let me also take this opportunity to assure you that my Ministry s support and close collaboration with ILO and other partner s in order to make the realization of all salient recommendations and workable solutions coming from the deliberation of this workshop. Wishing your stay to be happy and successful, I now declare that this workshop is officially opened. I Thank You! 5